Sentient Bodies
by Anonshy
Summary: Atom gets sent to a research institute to determine whether he is sentient. At the institute, Atom meets the other robots like Zeus, Midas, Twin Cities, Noisy Boy, and Metro. Now that the bots are free to do as they please, love is bound to happen. But someone from Atom's past shows up to stir the pot... WARNING: Yaoi and OC. Zeus/Atom and eventual Midas/Noisy Boy.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: This is my first story that I will post onto this site. In this fanfic, I made one OC because I wanted to give Atom a backstory. Which makes me feel like a hypocrite because I don't like reading stories with OCs and yet I made my own OC. But anyway, I hope you enjoy the story. Atom and the other bots get sent to a research institution to be tested for sentience. Of course, some bot-love happens along the way. Warning, there is going to be yaoi in this story. I don't mind flames about the story - if anything, I welcome them so that I can make this story better - but please don't complain about the pairings. I put up a warning for a reason.

Disclaimer: I do not own _Real Steel_ or any of the characters. I am only a fan.

* * *

In the days that followed the championship match, Atom was in a daze. Charlie and Max salvaged their bond once more, and Farra Lemkova along with Tak Mashido avoided the press as much as possible. Though it didn't seem that they gave up; they were simply attempting to retain their dignity in the face of such humiliating failure. A junkyard bot like Atom, and a WRB-league Game Breaker Bot like Zeus were never supposed to step into the same ring. But they did, and the results shocked and thrilled the world. Atom's story was the ultimate story of the underdog. Zeus became another great champion, knocked off his pedestal.

Of course, technically, Zeus still was the champion. But now, his cold, steel exterior has been dented, and the psychological wall of intimidation broke. For him, it would only be downhill from here. More bots will challenge him, and more will find a way to exploit Zeus' weaknesses now that they have been exposed.

Atom was still reeling from his fight with Zeus, and he felt the unfairness of it all; Zeus is an amazing, powerful bot that will likely be cast away as another has-been. Atom was really nothing special. He knew it in his circuitry and programming that he's nothing but a sparring bot. He was meant to train bots like Zeus, but never actually fight them. Without Charlie's training, Atom probably would never have reached the World Robot Boxing League. As a sparring bot, it's a natural ability for Atom to get up again and again even after so many hits. But then Charlie taught Atom to actually fight.

Atom couldn't lie. He loved Max for always believing in him and he was thankful to Charlie for turning him into something more than a G2 sparring bot buried under the mud. But sometimes, he would wonder what it would have been like if he really was sold to Farra Lemkova as Zeus' sparring bot. Atom would never have fought Twin Cities and therefore he would never have actually fought Zeus in a championship match.

It would have been like back then. Back when Atom was still young and new. When he was with Breaker.

_"Rise and shine, Atom."_

_ Blue eyes lit up. Machinery whirred and hummed. Light clanks echoed after sitting up. A row of bright red sandbags next to more punching bag equipment. A wall of tools with a single desktop computer in front. Everything seemed to be a shade of gray, silver, or white except for the sandbags and one single man in front of him. _

_"Atom. Atom? That's your name. You know that right?"_

_ The man was middle-aged. Balding. His voice rasped rather than spoke._

_"I guess you're still getting used to being on… Eh, what am I doing, talking to a robot anyway! You probably don't even understand a single thing I say." The man turned around and muttered to himself, "… Still getting used to things…"_

_ Atom. That was his name…_

That was the first memory that Atom ever had. A short, vague memory. Shortly after being turned on for the first time, he was turned off… until he powered on again a week later.

_"Hey, Atom. Had a good recharge?"_

_ Atom couldn't respond other than through the battery levels displayed on the computer beside him. _

_"Good, good. I want you to meet someone today. Someone special."_

_ Meet someone? Meet who? Atom quickly surveyed his surroundings. Last time, he powered on at the opposite side of the room. The desktop computer was beside him and the red punching bags are on the left side now. On the wall, he could now see the table that he was perched on before, and the charging station next to it. But there was no one in the room other than Atom and the man._

_"Wait a minute. I got to go get him."_

_ The man hustled himself away to go get "him." Who "he" is, Atom will soon find out. Atom couldn't see around the corner that the man disappeared behind, and he struggled to fight the urge to move himself forward of his own will. He wasn't sure why, but he knew it in his programming that he should not move without being told to. He still struggled anyway. The curiosity inside of him was boiling hot and about to overflow._

_ Finally, after several minutes of hearing nothing but the sounds of the man huffing and the clanking of metal, something came alive. The air was filled with an invisible electricity, and it excited Atom for what was to come next. A thud. A second thud. More heavy footsteps followed and soon, a giant appeared around the corner following the middle-aged man. A metal giant. _

_ At this point, Atom had never actually seen a robot despite being a robot himself. This was the first time he met Breaker, the robot titan. _

_ A metal giant. Black and yellow, with a face sculpted into a perpetual grimace. His wide shoulders led down to thickly plated fists and chest, which led down black steel legs all the way to large feet made for supporting a heavy frame. This bot was a true menace, something Atom was about to find out all too soon._

Later, when fighting Zeus, Atom would mentally laugh at the irony of his life after learning the story of the titans and the Greek gods. Breaker was a robot titan and Zeus was based off of the Greek god. Atom was sad that he couldn't actually laugh. He could only keep it to himself, in the company of himself.

The next few weeks after meeting Breaker, were hell.

_"Yeeah! That's what I'm talking about!"_

_ The man, who Atom now knew as Marty, cheered as Atom was knocked down yet again, by Breaker. At first, it seemed that the training sessions were grueling to _no one _except Atom. But then once the bots were plugged back into their charging units, and all the dents in Atom were banged out, Marty would say good night and shut down the lights until nothing but the glow and hum of electricity remained. Atom woke up during one of these nights, and silently grasped for the first time, the full realization that he can move around on his own. He slowly swiveled his head about in different directions, looking around in the darkness and stopped when he heard movement beside him._

_ Breaker was awake as well. He actually stepped away from his charging unit, which surprised Atom. The bigger bot walked several steps forward before turning and stopping right in front of Atom's unit. Breaker gestured for Atom to step forward as well, and so the smaller bot did. _

_ Atom felt… out of place. He felt as if he not only stepped away from his charging unit, but also his cage of isolation and restraint. He felt… free._

_ Atom joyfully looked up at Breaker, but stopped moving once he saw how dim Breaker's orange eyes were. It almost seemed as if he was still in hibernation mode, except he wasn't. His eyes seemed softer, gentler. A yellow fist uncurled and caressed the side of Atom's helmet ever so slightly that it barely registered in Atom's senses. _

_ Confusion and shyness radiated throughout Atom's body. He tried to lean away from the other's touch, but Breaker's other fist held Atom in place. _

_ That night, Breaker let Atom know how sorry he was that he had to hurt him every single day. It took Atom a while since they both couldn't talk, but Atom finally understood. The smaller bot patted the other's yellow chest to let Breaker know that it was okay._

It was okay. It _was _okay. As long as Breaker cared, it was okay. Eventually though, he stopped caring.

_ Blow after searing blow impacted with Atom's body, and the poor sparring bot struggled to get his hands up, to get some sort of barrier between him and the metal monster. Marty's voice was only a dull throb in Atom's head, along with everything else. He only felt the yellow fists, tightly curled, bash into his sides over and over again._

_ Atom knew he was going to break. He was going to break under this amount of abuse. He fell many times, but he never truly stayed down. That was about to change though. Breaker was on a vicious winning streak, and he seemed to be riding on a high of victory. The gentle titan was no more. There was only Breaker, the Robot Titan. The thrill of the fight was now like a drug for him; he's addicted; he can't get enough of the feeling of metal crumpling underneath his fists._

_ Atom was at his breaking point. He fell, but he wasn't going to get up. He was done. No more. No more…_

When Atom woke up again, it was after he was caked with dust and mud from the junkyard and he realized that Marty had thrown him out. Max brought him home, and convinced Charlie to give him a chance. Everything kept rolling from there.

Atom was finally brought out of his reminiscing by the commands transmitted from his remote controls. Despite Atom's voice recognition, which was salvaged from the pitiful remains of Noisy Boy, and his Shadow Mode, it was still necessary to use the old G2 remote in order to conventionally move him around.

Max seemed perturbed by something and as Atom walked behind his little master, he realized he was heading outside Bailey's gym. Something was wrong. Or terribly strange. Charlie seemed unusually subdued; Bailey seemed to be annoyed. Atom could only describe his feelings as a complete mixture of confusion, worry, and apprehension.

No one said anything to each other too, which made everything even more difficult for Atom to decipher the situation. His three human companions seemed to be communicating via telepathy, while also excluding Atom from the conversation. Why can't they talk in front of him? If they talked about what's happening, Atom's life would be so much easier.

It sucked to have a will, but unable to use it freely.

Outside the doors of the gym, Max turned Atom to the right, and then led him down the street to a large truck similar to Charlie's, but of higher quality and obviously more expensive parts. The black paint of the vehicle gleamed without a single blemish of a name, which exasperated Atom even more. No name, meant he still didn't know what was happening and who the owners of the truck are.

Two men got out of the truck and strode towards Atom with papers in their hands. Now Max seemed to regret leading Atom here because he looked up at Atom with a look that clearly said, 'I'm sorry.' The men took – no, actually Max gave – Atom's remote and steered him on the lift and into the dark black truck. Atom now realizes that things are even stranger than he thought, but it was too late. The back door of the truck slowly lifted up, and Atom was left alone in the dark confines of what seemed to be his transportation to an unknown destination.

Atom couldn't hear anything from inside the truck, but he was beginning to think that the humans outside were probably signing papers of transferred ownership, and Atom has been abandoned again. No matter how he thought about his situation, he couldn't find any positive scenarios. Atom loved Max. He loved Charlie. He loved Bailey. Why are they doing this to him?

The truck lurched and Atom was saved from falling by the rails of the lift. Sad, blue eyes glowed in the darkness of the truck and a silent voice cried.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Real Steel,_ its characters, actors, or ideas. **

Author's Notes: One little thing about me that I need to tell everyone who reads my stories (not just this one), is that I update very sporadically. I tend to have long intervals between updates and I tried writing weekly, but I just couldn't get myself to write when I didn't feel like it. I'm sorry to those who read this story and to those who will read my future stories but I do not update regularly. Now, about this chapter, I discovered that _Real Steel _is a movie where it is incredibly easy to create OCs for. I seriously wrote two more OCs in this chapter without even realizing what I was doing. Of course, the two characters are side characters, but I still scared myself when I realized what happened. I hope this doesn't become a habit of mine. This chapter is also very boring and I apologize but I tend to write my stories so that they progress slowly.

I also want to thank StressOfWriting for reviewing and I just want to say... I will eventually explain why the robots can move around on their own - the reason why they're being observed is so that the reason can be found. But I am probably going to be revealing that gradually as opposed to, BAM! Explanation! Again, I am not the kind of writer where everything is fast-paced. I still hope that you like the story though.

* * *

It felt like it had been days since Atom saw light. It seemed as if no light or sound could penetrate the metal barriers surrounding him. Not even the roar of the vehicle traveling on road could be heard. Atom wished Max didn't leave him. He felt betrayed yes, but he still missed Max, and he was never going to forget the little boy and his family no matter what. If it wasn't for Max, Atom's life would have ended in the junkyard.

But now, Atom wasn't sure _where_ he was going to end up. He tried walking around, but he kept bumping into the walls and various unknown structures. Atom tried feeling his surroundings to get around, but robot boxers were not created to have sensitive hands and Atom wasn't any different. In the end, the sparring bot simply gave up on moving around and instead shifted himself back onto the lift. He figured, when the truck stops, he was going to have to go back to the lift anyway.

Atom returned to the lift just in time, because the truck lurched forward, indicating a sudden stop. Within moments, white light broke through the dark confines of the truck, and Atom was blinded by the sheer brightness of daylight. When Atom's eyes focused, several unfamiliar men activated the lift to set Atom on the ground, and one woman with red hair had Atom's remote turned on and at the ready. The sparring bot followed the woman's commands through some kind of boarding school-like campus, and he noticed how the sky was a perfect shade of blue, with no clouds in sight. This day would be perfect for Max and Charlie to go fishing.

Atom's mood soured a little at the thought of Max and Charlie fishing without him. Of course, Atom obviously never caught any fish, but sometimes Max would maneuver the bot so that he'd hold a fishing rod or a bucket full of bait. The real reason why Atom enjoyed fishing is because he got to see how close Max and Charlie had become. The two often joked around, and for those days where they didn't catch anything good, they ended up buying frozen fish from the supermarket and trying to pass it off to Bailey as a fish that they caught. It never worked of course, but Bailey still cooked up something good with whatever fish they brought.

The sparring bot was so lost in his reminiscing that he almost forgot where he was. He stopped in front of two doors that smoothly slid to the sides and he was maneuvered through the complex set of hallways inside the building. On the outside, all of the buildings looked like they were made of old bricks, like brownstones. But Atom found that the interior was very different. Every surface inside the building seemed to be an immaculate, almost clinical-looking white. On the left was a flat wall with no decorations and nothing but pasty egg-shell colored white paint. On the right was a set of doors that receded into the wall a little bit, but they virtually blended in with the equally blank and bland white surface and there seemed to be nothing special about them.

Atom grew bored just walking through this place. He wondered when he would finally get to his destination. The red-haired woman always stayed a good foot behind him, and she seemed to be in no hurry to get Atom where he needs to be. Atom almost started drifting off into more memories, but he came back to the present where he currently stood in front of a door that was larger than all of the other doors; the sparring bot noticed that unlike the other doors, this one seemed to be made to accommodate large objects passing through.

The door whooshed open quickly, startling Atom, and inside the room were sudden splotches of color all around the room. After another second of processing the layout of the room, Atom realized that the colorful blobs were actually other robots. Including some that Atom had fought before. The woman used the remote to walk Atom into the room, but then she just said, "Have fun" and she turned around and walked away with Atom's remote. The bot just saw a glimpse of red before the doors slid shut and clicked, indicating that they locked.

Atom wondered, 'have fun? What did she mean by that? She didn't even put me against the wall. She just left me here in front of the door.' Atom stood there for the longest time until he finally realized that he was the only bot standing still. Everyone else milled about the room freely; most of them seemed to be bored.

Feeling awkward, Atom took a step towards the wall, away from the others. Some recognition flickered in a couple of the robots' eyes when they saw Atom, but most of the boxers didn't even give Atom a second glance. The sparring bot was the smallest out of all of the robots, and he was also the only G2. He was mostly a dull silver or gray, but everyone else was painted extravagantly, literally made to shine in the boxing ring.

A brilliant red boxer with painted flames on his arms kept taunting a green robot with black fists. The name, "Firecracker" stretched along the red robot's chest and the green robot had the initials, "GA" on his forehead. Atom wasn't sure if "GA" was supposed to be based off the name of the state, the robot's name, or the initials of the robot's owner's name. He honestly wasn't quite sure if the letters were even related to a name since normally robots had their names on their chests or not at all.

While Atom was pondering over possible meanings of the initials, the green bot had had enough. A metallic clang resounded through the room, and Firecracker fell to the ground. The fight was on. Everyone in the room formed a square, almost unconsciously, and the two bots began circling each other like sharks before they devoured prey.

Firecracker's fist shot forward but GA sidestepped and lunged in to land a hit on the red bot's midsection. GA's fists were black blurs as they relentlessly pummeled the red bot's midsection, then head, then back down again when Firecracker tried putting his fists up.

The winner was clearly going to be the green bot. Atom felt a little sympathy for the red bot, considering the amount of hits he was taking, but he kind of deserved it. He's the one who kept bothering GA, so this is what he gets.

Now, Atom wondered, when were the two supposed to stop? Usually, a fight ends when a bot stays down for ten seconds; but then Firecracker's going to suffer some serious damage in the process. It's apparent that no one's owners are here to repair them, so why aren't the two stopping? Atom wondered this with dismay as he saw brilliant red metal crumple and dent after every punch.

A swoosh interrupted the cacophonous noises of metal bashing metal and Atom turned to see a woman in a lab coat gaze at the spectacle in the room with wide eyes.

"SECURITY!" the woman screamed.

The door closed, and when they opened again a moment later, the woman was gone and replaced by a trio of men with long spear-like weapons with what seemed to be crackling electricity at the end. The battling duo already stopped when the woman opened the door, but the men still seemed wary as they herded the two bots out of the room. Before the last man stepped out of the room, he turned – like he had an afterthought- and he said, "No more fights."

After that, nothing happened. An aura of boredom fell upon the whole room, but no one tried to start up another fight. Atom was actually kind of thankful that it was over; the fight scared him, knowing that there weren't any humans around to control the bots and determine their moves for them. Atom never fought on his own, and he honestly was scared to try.

He's not sure he'd win if he fought alone.

After Atom's arrival, three more robots came. One of them was completely bronze colored. The other two seemed to be twins; they were two bots that looked the same except for the eye color, unlike Twin Cities who was two bots in one. At the thought of Twin Cities, Atom wondered what happened to the unusual bot.

The doors opened and Atom did a double take when he saw who walked in. Almost as if on cue, Twin Cities – fully repaired and functional – stepped into the room. Immediately, the two heads looked around the room with one starting from one end and the other viewing the other end of the room. The right head's eyes locked onto Atom and the huge red bot began marching menacingly towards him.

Fear slowly crawled through Atom's circuitry as he wondered if the former-World Robot Boxing League robot had a grudge. The other bots looked at the unique boxer and marveled at him for a moment, but they quickly lost their interest and returned to tapping their fists against the wall or some other mundane activity. Atom wished he could tell the two-headed behemoth that they're not allowed to fight, but he couldn't speak.

Twin Cities stopped in front of Atom. He raised his left fist.

Then he softly patted Atom on the shoulder. The little sparring bot was fully prepared to defend himself if the situation called for it, but this completely threw him off. Atom relaxed in relief and he looked up at Twin Cities in surprise. The two-headed robot was peacefully standing next to him as if he was never beat up or suffered a system failure.

Atom was thankful that there weren't any hard feelings but… He couldn't help but wonder if the robot's memories were erased during repairs. But then Atom realized that Twin Cities wouldn't have recognized Atom if his memories were erased, so the little bot threw that idea out. Twin Cities was friendly.

No other robots came in that day, and eventually all of the robots were taken to another, larger room where there were recharging stations. Twin Cities stayed next to Atom the whole time, and the sparring bot couldn't lie. He was thankful to finally be with another robot that he recognized. The two chose recharging stations next to each other in the upper left portion of the warehouse-like room. It felt awkward setting themselves up to recharge. The recharging stations were set up so that the robots had to connect to them with cables and most of the robots had to be connected on the back.

The simple act of recharging turned into a mini-lesson about teamwork, as multiple bots had to get help connecting themselves to the fuel cells and batteries. Including Atom and Twin Cities. After everyone was finally done inserting the cables into the right places, a hush slowly fell over the room and all was silent.

Atom was just going off of the assumption that it was currently night – since he hadn't been outside for who knows how long – and he mentally said good night to Twin Cities, and to Max. Wherever he was.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Real Steel _and its characters, ideas, etc. I am merely a fan.**

Author's Notes: Wow this has got to be the fastest update that I've ever done. And lemme just take a moment to express my frustration at still finding little bits and pieces of contradictory or wrong text in my story. I read, then reread, and I get all of my spelling mistakes out. Then I post the chapter and I realize that it still has little errors. I already know that I have tense issues, but argh. In the last chapter I also messed up on a couple parts. Oh well. I'll have to keep getting better. I'm not sure if anyone is willing to beta this story, but I'm thinking that I could use one.

And again, StressOfWriting you are beautiful. I feel so blessed that I get a reviewer like you who not only reads my story and kind of likes it, but also critiques it a little as well. I am trying to go with the flow with this story - honestly, I didn't plan the whole thing out - and you are making my life so much better. Okay, I hope I didn't creep you out or anything, but I just want you to know how thankful I am to you.

To everyone else, I'm not a review whore, and I'm not going to be like, "After this many reviews I'll continue." (Especially on a _Real Steel _fanfic!) But reviews are always appreciated. If you don't like my story or writing, then a review would probably make it better in the future. I'm sorry for rambling, but now onto the story.

* * *

Atom woke up to several light punches to his left shoulder. Atom swiveled his head around to face Twin Cities, who was trying to get his attention. When Twin Cities saw that Atom was awake, he pointed to the double doors at the end of the room. Atom finally noticed that the large room was completely empty except for him and Twin Cities. He was taken aback for a moment and he wondered why no one woke him up earlier, but then he focused on removing his fuel cable – which Twin Cities helped with – and followed the two-headed robot out the double doors.

Atom looked at Twin Cities inquiringly. It seemed as if the two-headed bot knew exactly where he was going. Despite the uniformity of the hallways, the red robot had no problem navigating through the white maze. Twin Cities was striding through every hallway and door so naturally that Atom started to doubt the red bot; he wondered if Twin Cities was just randomly walking around.

The sparring bot's doubts died down once Twin Cities led him outside to a vast courtyard. The same boarding school-like feel engulfed Atom once more. He was reminded of his arrival here in this strange place, and he marveled at its strange duality. Cold, sterile, white insides. Bright, lush, and olden-style outsides.

But as Atom reveled in being in warm sunlight again, he was also hit with a realization of how clueless he was. Sparks of panic flashed through his head while he noticed up on the rooftops, barely out of sight, were people who seemed to be watching the robots and their every move. Inside the closed in and uniform rooms, Atom was alone with other bots and he somehow felt safer, more comfortable. Out here, Atom all of a sudden felt like a mouse in the middle of the prairie, surrounded by predators.

In the ring, Atom was with Charlie and Max, and he was busy trying to survive in a boxing match. It never occurred to him how it actually felt to be watched. In short, it felt unnerving. Atom felt more self-conscious than he'd ever felt since he was powered up.

Twin Cities was in the middle of the courtyard, ambling around aimlessly, like he didn't care about anything that was around him. Atom wondered why the red bot didn't notice the people up top. Didn't he realize that they were being stared at?

And then Atom understood. As a World Robot Boxing League robot, Twin Cities was completely unfazed by any kind of close scrutiny. He's normally used to _thousands_ of people watching him. Several onlookers in lab coats were nothing. For a brief moment, Atom was reminded of his sparring bot origin and his short boxing career.

The only reason Atom made it through the spotlight was because Charlie and Max were there to cover for him. Now that the sparring bot's by himself, he knew for sure that he couldn't stand being in the spotlight alone.

The courtyard stretched out over a large expanse of space and Atom felt very small, and very paranoid. Dark enclosed rooms and other bots, were relatively easy to handle. Large open spaces with no Charlie, Bailey, or Max, and weird robots and people?

Atom wished the people could take a moment to give an explanation as to what they're doing and why. For a day, the sparring bot focused more on other things like meeting Twin Cities and learning how to hook himself up to a fuel cable. Now that Twin Cities was off doing his own thing, Atom had nothing else to do except pace around and ponder over every possibility until his head exploded.

Were the people planning to stop or outlaw robot boxing? Atom shook his head no, because robot boxing was way too popular and there'd be riots if it stopped. Were the robots being observed so that a bigger, and better robot could be built? Possibly. But Atom wasn't sure if that would warrant enough motivation to gather together so many robots. If the people were planning on making the ultimate boxing champion, then they would have assembled only the best robots to take tips from. Right now, Atom could see maybe a little over a hundred robots milling around the courtyard and honestly, most of them looked pretty average. Or maybe if-

"-at? Any hypotheses yet?"

Atom stopped himself in his tracks. He took a couple steps back to where he came from, and sure enough, behind a tree coming from a window up high, bits and pieces of a conservation floated downwards. The junkyard bot looked curiously upwards, and stepped forward a little to see if he could catch anything else that was currently said.

"-if? Fifty years ago, an intelligent life form came to Earth and-"

"Pat. I don't want to hear your alien hypothesis again."

"But-"

"Nope. If anything, all of this was probably an accident. Some glitch in manufacturing somehow changed something and-"

"An accident? You make fun of me for my theory, and you don't think there's something wrong with yours? A 'glitch in manufacturing' wouldn't be _nearly _enough to cause sentience!"

"Yeah, well-"

Atom would have raised an eyebrow if he had any, because the next few sentences sounded very childish and were consisted mainly of name-calling and claims of, "You're being stupid." The sparring bot deflated a little when he realized that he didn't learn anything useful from that conversation, and he stepped back out towards the courtyard.

And then he hit a wall. A giant metal wall. Or more specifically, a sleek black thousand pound robot with glowing green eyes. Zeus.

Atom panicked and he automatically backed away from the towering robot until a hard brick surface reminded him that he couldn't back up any further. The shade from the tree made Zeus look darker, and more menacing than before. He began walking towards Atom, with every step rattling the ground. For a moment, Atom hoped that Zeus would be like Twin Cities and just be friendly, but then Zeus started pounding his fists together and Atom understood. Zeus didn't appreciate getting knocked down by a no-name, junky, sparring bot.

A black fist flew through the air – and impacted with brown brick, sending chunks of crumbling brownstone everywhere. Atom's body moved just in time to avoid the hit, and the sparring bot whirred into action. Atom high-tailed it away from Zeus towards the courtyard as fast as he could, but to his dismay, Zeus followed with break-neck speed.

Atom turned sharply to the left and he almost fell and bumped into a pair of robots in the way. He quickly regained his footing and he urged his stiff, metal legs and feet to move faster when he heard the sounds of metal and metal colliding; the sounds were no doubt, Zeus pushing the robots out of his way. Nothing was going to stop the champion from getting payback, and regaining his lost dignity.

The other robots around Atom soon grasped the need to relocate, and they began to walk quickly away from the sparring bot and his pursuer. Atom spotted Twin Cities, still moseying around in the center and the sparring bot sped towards the red robot. Metal feet struck and pounded loudly on grass and concrete causing everyone to turn their heads towards the commotion in the middle.

Twin Cities' left head noticed Atom running towards him and the red bot raised his left arm in greeting, before noticing that Atom had a very angry Zeus on his heels. Both of Twin Cities' heads spun around in alarm when Atom skid and unceremoniously tackled the red bot to the ground. The little bot didn't mean to tackle Twin Cities, but right now that was the least of his worries. What was really important, was making sure he didn't end up in a junkyard again, as a pile of parts.

While Twin Cities and Atom struggled to get up, Zeus caught up to the sparring bot and grabbed him. After pushing the two-headed bot to the side, the Russian bot raised his right fist and was about to reunite it with Atom's face when suddenly security showed up and paralyzed Zeus with the electrical tips of their spears. Zeus stiffened and fell forwards, landing awkwardly on top of Atom and essentially pinned him down.

Atom felt as if he was hit by a freight train, and he blankly realized that right now he _literally _had over a thousand pounds of metal on top of him. The sparring bot struggled to get out from under Zeus, and the large black robot's eyes glowed angrily.

The security men finally managed to load Zeus onto what appeared to be some kind of forklift type of vehicle, and the bitter champion was taken back to a large building on the right side of the courtyard. Atom slowly got up and tried to dust himself off a little, while at the same time noting that the building Zeus was taken to was a different building than the one that Atom and Twin Cities came from.

Thank goodness Zeus wasn't in the same building as Atom. The sparring bot didn't think he'd power on for another day if he had to recharge in the same room as Zeus. Twin Cities patted Atom on the back and the sparring bot recalled how he fully tackled the red bot. Atom looked at the red bot guiltily and patted Twin Cities awkwardly in return.

The two heads spun around quickly and Atom got the vibe that there were no hard feelings, so he didn't dwell on it for too much longer. Unfortunately, he detected that there were even more eyes on him now after such a fiasco and he guessed that he probably looked like a mechanical maniac. Atom's mood plummeted even more due to embarrassment and self-consciousness. Today was not a good day.

Eventually, the robots were called back to their respective buildings – even though the sun was still shining brightly – and Atom felt much calmer after seeing the familiar white walls again. Twin Cities was evidently unhappy about leaving the wide courtyard by the way he lagged behind Atom and the way he dragged his right fist across the wall as he walked, earning him a reprimand from a security man.

Atom decided that the boring qualities of the interior were exactly why he felt more at ease. With the white walls, everything was the same and there were no surprises. And, Atom felt reassured at the thought that Zeus was over three hundred feet away, in a completely different building.

The group of robots were led back to the room with recharging stations and Atom was glad. But then a couple steps into the room and a wave of homesickness hit Atom. He missed the slight muskiness and dustiness of Bailey's gym. He missed playing with Max. He missed boxing with Charlie. He missed Bailey's smile and laugh.

The events of today further convinced Atom that without his human companions, he's nothing. If the security men didn't stop Zeus, Atom would have turned into a scrap heap. Without Twin Cities, Atom wouldn't have any friends. The sparring bot now felt paranoid and insecure about every little thing, and he could feel himself slowly getting worse.

He couldn't go out in the courtyard anymore unless he wanted to suffer the wrath of Zeus. He now fully grasped the fact that he hates being watched. He didn't know if the reason why the robots were here would result in all of them ending up in a scrap heap.

Twin Cities looked at Atom and seemed to sense that the smaller bot was in bad mood, so he patted Atom on the back once more and gestured over to their chosen recharging stations. Atom looked curiously at Twin Cities when he felt a strange sense of déjà vu after yet another pat, and the sparring bot wondered if the patting and light punching were habits of the two-headed robot.

Of course, Atom couldn't blame him. There weren't many ways for robots to communicate, and Twin Cities was fairly good at "speaking" his mind. Atom felt a little better knowing that he had a friend in Twin Cities, and he decided that some recharge and sleep mode would help.

After hooking up the fuel cable, Atom forced himself to forget all of his worries for now and just sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything. _Real Steel _belongs to its creators and I am just a fan.**

Author's Notes: I again apologize for uploading slowly. After uploading the last chapter really quickly, I just kind of forgot again. While writing this chapter I felt kind of... bad? I guess you'll see why but to kind of sum it up, I added another robot and I didn't mean for him to be so... pitiful... Hopefully it wasn't too much, but I don't know it's weird the robots' personalities just kind of develop as I'm writing them. I actually didn't intend for Twin Cities to be as chill as he is. And yes, I said "chill." I don't know how else to describe the difference between Twin Cities as I wrote him and Twin Cities as I thought about him. Also, I'm sorry if it feels like the chapter just cuts off all of a sudden. It's just that I didn't want the chapter to be too long. I want to keep the chapter lengths kind of consistent for convenience purposes.

Anyway, to StressOfWriting, actually yes the Zeus chasing Atom moment was intended to be kind of cute. I mean, I just didn't want to write the moment so that it was too violent or tense.

I hope you like this chapter.

* * *

Atom woke up from his much-needed recharge, and was relieved to find that this time, he was the first to awaken. Twin Cities was still recharging next to him, and the only sounds in the room were light whirring and humming from machinery. Atom decided against moving from his spot, and he just took the time to look around.

Firecracker and GA were still absent ever since their little fight, and the thought brought Atom back to his worries yesterday of being scrapped. He tried to reassure himself that the two were probably just retained in different buildings, but he couldn't quite shake the feeling that this whole place was very strange. Atom thought back to the little snippet of conversation he heard yesterday and he felt that the people here were kind of… unprofessional. Except for the security men of course. Then Atom remembered their menacing-looking spears and how they immobilized Zeus immediately, and soon a scenario of Firecracker and GA getting thrown into an incinerator while they were immobilized, surfaced in Atom's thoughts.

The sparring bot shook his head and tried to clear up his mind before he started the day off with another bad foot. He did not want another repeat of yesterday. After yesterday's slightly scarring experiences, Atom was determined to stay positive, and away from Zeus. But Atom had the feeling that the daily itinerary's most likely the same. Go to courtyard. Come back to charging rooms. Repeat.

Atom decided that the next few moments would be a great time to plan out where he's going to hide. The sparring bot mentally rolled his eyes. Of course the robots have to be in a courtyard; courtyards barely have anywhere to hide.

Clank! Atom turned his head and sure enough, Twin Cities was up. He took a step forward and began blindly groping the air behind him before he remembered that it was impossible to unhook the fuel cable alone. The two heads turned to Atom and stared until the sparring bot finally went and unhooked the cable for him.

Soon after, all of the other robots were up and they started milling about the room. It was clear the doors were locked. A couple bots went up to the doors and banged on them a couple times to make sure. The bots went to go join a group of robots gathered in the top corner of the room and Atom noticed that the robots were starting to cluster together into separate groups.

After a day or two of being here, the robots were now beginning to make friends. Atom looked at his own friend who was currently helping out a yellow and blue robot with his fuel pump. Twin Cities walked back over to Atom when he was done, but then the two glanced toward the doors curiously.

Atom could've sworn that he heard something. The others heard the sound too and after a couple moments of waiting for the sound again, the robots went back to whatever they were doing. Then everyone heard it again. This time, there was no doubt that there was a strange noise.

Loud, metallic, groaning seemed to emanate from the doors. They slid open to reveal two rather nonplussed women and a very strange, yet familiar robot behind them. The robot's mismatched legs limped rather than walked, but he didn't really seem to care. He was looking around the room with wonder – or maybe bewilderment – in his glowing eyes. Atom had no idea what he was so amazed at – robots and white walls were everywhere in this place. And then Atom realized why the robot was so familiar. But… it was impossible. There was no way he survived.

The women led the robot cautiously into the room, almost as if he was a child they had to keep an eye on. The young woman on the left shrieked when the robot leaned his head forward and some kind of oil or slime dripped onto her foot. The older woman looked at her with an unsympathetic look and just patted the robot on his left arm – which was basically a sledgehammer. The robot just stared vacantly at her as she walked away, but then a couple moments later he started following them. The brunette that got mystery liquid on her foot turned around and shooed him back to the middle of the room. The other robots, including Atom, stared at the incongruous robot.

While the two women started walking towards the exit of the room again, the brunette turned to the other and whispered loudly, "What's the point of having _that_ thing?"

"That 'thing' is a robot too, and as you can see it can move around its own so it's worth observing. Don't complain," the older woman said in a scolding tone. She continued, "And that robot was practically made from scratch. If it's sentient, then we have its owner to receive maybe blueprints or building instructions. And once we have that, then we can go through the process and determine how the robots can move around on their own."

"Ugh. Owner? Blueprints? We had to go through a lot of trouble to get that weird robot from his weird owner! Kingping or something? He kept screaming about 'making a living' and 'Metro's my robot! Not yours.' I don't want to go to him again just to try to get blueprints of that _mess_."

Just before the doors closed, the older woman looked at the young brunette pointedly and said, "Chelsea, you better change your attitude or else you're not going to be intern-"

Atom didn't catch the rest of the sentence, but it sounded almost like an ultimatum. The sparring bot turned towards the Frankenstein-like robot, who seemed to be at a loss by himself. Atom stepped closer to the familiar lazy-eyed face until he confirmed to himself, that yes, this robot was definitely Metro.

But Atom still wondered, 'how in the world did Metro survive?' He practically blew himself up. He was on fire. As in, his metal body was encased in flames after a brutal system failure. Then Atom noticed that Metro looked a little bit different. Most of his main parts like his sledgehammer and legs remained fairly intact, but his torso and right arm were different. Kingpin most likely salvaged those parts from yet another robot.

Metro now looked a little bit smaller, but when viewed from the front he still had the same general appearance. Atom was shocked at how unscathed Metro was – but then the colorfully disproportionate robot turned to the side and Atom noticed the black scorch marks that covered the top of Metro's legs and parts of his sledgehammer.

The sparring bot felt a little bad, and unlike Twin Cities, Metro didn't seem to recognize Atom at all. Frankly, Metro didn't seem to recognize anything. Atom noticed a strange… irregularity in Metro. Of course, Atom didn't mean Metro's body. Anyone could see that it wasn't normal.

The other robots were all currently situated around the edges of the room, notably away from Metro. When Metro stepped towards the left wall, the robots there took a couple steps towards the right wall. When Metro started walking towards the back, the robots shuffled out of the way and moved towards the front. Even Twin Cities seemed a little perturbed at Metro's presence.

The Franken-robot slowly limped his way over to a charging station on the back wall, and this is when Atom noticed the irregularity. Metro looked at the charging station and reached for the fuel pump… And then he stopped. Then Metro looked at the charging station again. His right arm stretched out towards the fuel pump and brushed against the cable, but then paused again. The whole time, his body sounded like it was groaning a little as he moved.

Now Metro was looking around and he focused on the bit of wall next to the charging station. He started pawing at it for some unknown reason. Then he seemed to notice the fuel cable near his hand for the first time, and he went to grab it, but he somehow got sidetracked again. Or, Atom thought, maybe Metro kept… forgetting what he was doing.

True guilt settled into Atom's circuits. So much for unscathed. Atom didn't know Metro before the fight, but he was certain that Metro probably didn't forget what he was doing _while he was doing it_.

When Metro finally started trying to plug himself to the fuel pump, he found that his arm couldn't reach his back, and after a couple seconds of futile flailing, Metro stopped what he was doing. He looked at the fuel cable. He tried to plug it in on his back. And then he started flailing again.

Now Atom couldn't just stand by and watch anymore. The sight was too pitiful. Clearly, no one except Atom wanted to help the poor robot. Other than Atom, none of the other bots even stepped near Metro. The sparring bot couldn't believe them. It was pretty normal to use salvaged parts for repairs or rebuilding, so he didn't see why everyone was alienating Metro so much. Of course, Metro's a pretty _extreme_ case of reusing parts. But Atom still didn't think that warranted the kind of avoidance the poor robot was getting.

Atom walked over to Metro, and while the larger robot stopped flailing, Atom took the fuel cable and plugged it in himself. Twin Cities' heads spun in confusion when he saw Atom helping the strange bot. After a while though, he saw that Metro was just calmly staring at the different scratches and cracks on the wall, and the red robot finally mustered up the gall to go towards him.

Atom looked over to see Twin Cities walking over to where he was, and he felt glad that his friend was willing to go outside his comfort zone. Twin Cities finally stopped in front of Metro, right next to Atom. He seemed to be getting used to the Franken-robot, and then Metro noticed Twin Cities and turned towards the two-headed bot – inadvertently spewing slime over Twin Cities' feet.

Twin Cities looked at Atom with what was no doubt, annoyance. Atom shrugged a little and then tried to look closer at Metro's neck and head area. There was obviously a leak coming from somewhere, but Atom couldn't see where it was. Metro didn't even notice that there was a leak in his neck. Instead he was currently eyeing Twin Cities' two heads curiously.

Then Metro raised up his hand and tried to see if he could turn both Twin Cities' heads, and the red robot stepped back about five feet and stayed there. Atom shook his head and tried to stop Metro from walking away while plugged in to the charging station.

After ten minutes of babysitting Metro, the doors finally opened and the robots quickly made their way outside. Atom felt like he was probably the only robot that preferred to stay inside. But Twin Cities gestured for Atom to follow, and the sparring bot couldn't leave Metro alone. Metro will walk to the front of the room and damage the fuel cable because he didn't remember that it was still plugged in. Not to mention that Metro seemed to want to follow Twin Cities and the other robots outside.

Atom mentally sighed and unhooked Metro from the recharging station. Twin Cities was already halfway across the room and Atom and Metro followed him. Metro stopped a couple times to stare at another recharging station on the left wall, and tried to go towards it. Atom quickly maneuvered Metro back on course, and somehow they made it outside to the courtyard.

Twin Cities wasted no time and cut straight across the courtyard to the middle. Atom debated whether or not it was safe to leave Metro alone, but then he remembered that Metro was a boxing robot, not a child. If anything happened, Metro will probably be fine.

A white butterfly flittered past Metro's head and caught the robot's attention. Metro clapped his hand and sledgehammer together happily, startling Atom and a couple others, before following the butterfly haphazardly.

Metro's short memory and attention span made it difficult for him to follow the butterfly, but somehow he managed to amble along after it. The butterfly landed on the top of a bench, and Metro made to touch it, but he ended up accidentally squashing it.

When Metro started looking around the bench, trying to figure out how the butterfly disappeared right in front of his eyes, Atom didn't have the heart to tell him that the butterfly was now stuck on the bottom of his hand. Crushed.

But soon the frankenbot took interest in something else, and he began to follow that. Atom stared at the back of Metro and just knew that the mismatched robot was going to be a handful.


End file.
